Majken Horton Email & Phone Number

La Jolla Shores, California, United States

Joined the Law Lab as a part of Harnessing Plant Initiative (HPI). More info to come!

Davis, California, United States

RESEARCH PROJECTSDetermining Verticillium dahlia resistance in commercial varieties of Mentha spicata and Mentha x piperita — August 2022-August 2023 Junior Specialist, Comai Lab• Conducted largescale pathogen resistance assays (Verticillium dahlia) on multiple Mentha species, including wild, mapping, and hybrid populations. Candidates proceeded to breeding programs.• Library preparations for genome assembly of Spearmint, Peppermint, and parent genomes.• Developed protocols… Show more RESEARCH PROJECTSDetermining Verticillium dahlia resistance in commercial varieties of Mentha spicata and Mentha x piperita — August 2022-August 2023 Junior Specialist, Comai Lab• Conducted largescale pathogen resistance assays (Verticillium dahlia) on multiple Mentha species, including wild, mapping, and hybrid populations. Candidates proceeded to breeding programs.• Library preparations for genome assembly of Spearmint, Peppermint, and parent genomes.• Developed protocols and techniques required for large scale pathogen assays.• Developed three alternative pathogen resistance assays in order to maximize time and space.Production of a Periclinal Chimera Mint Hybrid as an Alternative to Traditional Breeding Techniques — August 2022-August 2023 Junior Specialist, Comai Lab• Determined optimal scion and rootstock donators, by resistance, oil profile, genome size.• Developed protocol to graft mint stems and rootstock.• Developed protocol to induce adventitious shoots in mint in field conditions.• Developed screening protocol to determine correct periclinal orientation via sequencing for genome size in addition to phenotypic traits. Show less

RESEARCH PROJECTSSex Differentiation Pathways: Roles of Cis-regulatory Elements in the Development of Drosophila Sex Comb —2019-2022 undergraduate research project, Kopp Lab• Isolation of native promotor for the doublesex (dsx) locus.• Developed custom plasmid containing native promotor and candidate enhancer regions.• Developed GFP reporter line (D. melanogaster) to test candidate enhancer regions using native promotor. • Discovery of enhancer within first exon region… Show more RESEARCH PROJECTSSex Differentiation Pathways: Roles of Cis-regulatory Elements in the Development of Drosophila Sex Comb —2019-2022 undergraduate research project, Kopp Lab• Isolation of native promotor for the doublesex (dsx) locus.• Developed custom plasmid containing native promotor and candidate enhancer regions.• Developed GFP reporter line (D. melanogaster) to test candidate enhancer regions using native promotor. • Discovery of enhancer within first exon region controlling temporal splicing for the male isoform of dsx in male sex comb bristle cells during the 18th hour pupation stage.Assessing the Fitness Effect of a Color Polymorphism in Drosophila species — 2019-2022 honors thesis research project, Kopp Lab• Collected and analyzed fitness heat tolerance data comparing female limited color dimorphisms between two distantly related species, Drosophila rufa and serrata. • Wrote a literature review and thesis to meet honors thesis requirements. Show less

Loomis, California

A summer job including (1) the manual labor of weeding, harvesting, and planting of tall bearded and dwarf Irises (2) retail and customer service during sale and pick up of irises (3) accounting and labeling of sales and orders throughout the year (4) husbandry of farm animals including Boer goats.

Cashier work and customer service while restocking and developing the store's culture through decoration and product presentation.

Davis, California

Through the Young Scholars Program, I studied the changes in expression of the genes tRFP-WIP1 and NRIP1-CFP inside nicotiana benthamiana to create a hybrid vector containing both genes that are fully expressed. This was to simplify the study of plant innate immunology through chloroplast stromules by allowing the nucleus and chloroplast membrane fluorescent markers to be inserted at the same time through one vector.

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Genetics And Genomics

Genetics and Genomics major Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies minor

General Education

Activities and Societies: I was involved in the Marching Band, Winter Percussion and Concert Band for four years and Jazz Band for two.